By ZACHERY PER
KEROWAGI Health Centre in Simbu province is deteriorating rapidly and facing an acute shortage of basic drugs.
The officer-in-charge at the health centre Mathew Boi and District Health Officer Lyna Gene told The National that the building at the health centre was falling apart due to years of negligence in regular maintenance.
However, community leaders Kimin Siwi and Gewai Palma of Dawagle village just outside Kerowagi administrative centre alleged that the staff at the health centre stole basic drugs and sold them to sick people.
“We saw relatives and friends of the health centre staff selling medicines to sick people on the streets and in the villages. When patients go to the health centre, their ailments are diagnosed but they are told to go and buy their own medicine,” the two leaders claimed.
They said there were no proper storages and dispensary systems for medicines and drugs at the centre, and that nobody could access them.
A group of expectant mothers at the health centre said that they could not be admitted because the labour-ward building was in a very bad condition, did not have proper medical facilities and had no drugs.
It did not have a nursery for pre-mature babies either, they said.
“We just come here for clinics during the day and for delivery. Immediately after that, we are discharged and sent back to our respective villages, because there are no proper equipment and drugs to treat us or our babies,” they said.
A concerned young man Herman Maundo said when pregnant mothers go to the health centre for delivery, they have to make sure they provide for their own candle or kerosene lamps because there is no power.
PNG Power office in Kundiawa said the centre owed them K900 in an outstanding bill.
Meanwhile, Dr Alphonse Kambu from Kerowagi, currently with the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies based in Japan, has secured a grant of US$50,000 (K132, 000) from a private Swiss Foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, for the health centre.